Talk:Nova/@comment-24796133-20150129224439/@comment-24796133-20150130204629
"He should be here in a few minutes." I say to Cara, witing patiently on the roof of our building. It's been four days since Cara joined us, and my injury has finally healed enough for me to be able to fight fairly well, no more than a dull pain now. Ghost left the morning after I questioned Cara and he hasn't come back since. Now that I have company, I guess he thinks his job is over. Not that he was much use anyway. The only thing he seems to have left behind is a new background on my TDC. I didn't even know you could do that, is he a tech wizard now as well as a master of stealth? Jacob should be here soon, it's almost midnight on the night we agreed. I've not had any other messages from him so either things are going well, or he's dead. Hopefully the former, but probably the latter, knowing Jacob. I want to kill him and he's my ally after all. Unlike with Ghost, I can tell someone is coming up to the roof from the noises, it amazes me how Jacob could have been so subtle to survive a week in enemy camp, but he comes up onto the roof with a grin on his face. Then he sees Cara, and then her mark, and his smile drops. I step in quickly to prevent him from getting the wrong idea. "Calm it down mate, she's with us. She's been far more helpful than a hinderance, we're all good." He looks at me quizzically for a second. "Can you trust her?" "She pointed a gun at my face and didn't pull the trigger, good enough." "She has more willpower than I do then, I'd have blown your brains out!" He jokes, giving her a smile. At least she now seems at ease with him. I get to the point. "So superspy, tell me how the hell you haven't been killed yet." He laughs at this and begins his story. "So after our little stunt, nice acting by the way, the girl, 'Nano' she did the usual thanking, me being the handsome savior and all, and asked who I was. Now I may be dumb, but not dumb enough to give her my real name, so I made the on the spot nickname of 'Spike', pretty suitable for me really. After that the guy, 'Surfer', he went looking for you with a bunch of other mutants, but naturally there was no chance of them finding you. Meanwhile me and Nano went back to their base, it looked to be some power station headquarters before they got their hands on it. Luckily they didnt check for a mark on my neck, like you said if they looked closely I'd have been screwed. Instead nano pretty much just asked me a couple of things, how long I'd been here, what my power was. I told her my power, no point in lying there, but said I'd been around a couple of weeks, and it all checked out okay. Then she told me she wanted me to see what i could do. And damn did they test me, put me up against Surfer as it happens, that guy is way too fast. Even after a got my arse handed to me once or twice, I kept at it, and I got him down in the end, only after two days though. Nano seemed more impressed then, that's when we got the news. A new mutant, someone powerful that the big man himself went to sort out, and was now on the loose. I made the link, and I knew it was you, you bloody idiot. What were you thinking going against him alone? After that Nano sent me out with some of the soldiers and mutants to go looking for you, and three days of pointless searching, deliberately avoiding this place, I'm here." Not a bad story, but time for the important stuff. "So," I say, "What have you found out?" Jacob lets out a long sigh. "There was only so much I could ask without being suspicious, but I found out a fair bit. Nano's power is to do with computers and data, she can make viruses on the system, hack into stuff, all that, I have no idea how it works but that's her play. She told me that's how they did the broadcast featuring Pluto. I also picked up bits on info she let slip. I know that whoever the brander is, he's new, they only found him a week or two back, along with his bodyguard. I haven't seen either of them, they're at another base for now, along with some other guy they call 'Cloner'." I take a second to think about that. "Cloner... I ran into a mutant in Paris who could fit that name, he had the power to duplicate his body, it makes sense." "That could be it. But there are a couple of other they mentioned as well. One name I heard a lot was 'Gamma', maybe another high ranking mutant, but that's all I know about them. And then of course, the big man himself, Pluto. I asked a little bout him, and Nano told me one or two things. He got his powers a while back, one of the first probably, and the rumor goes that they tried to kill him back in Russia, but he got away and started finding others like him, for his revenge. The guy is behind the scenes, Nano has only seen him once, and even then she didn't see his face. They're making him out to be both a combat genius and a mastermind, the perfect leader. Somehow i doubt that's true, but there's not much else known about him that isn't rumor. Maybe other mutants know more, and i'd bet one of my bones on the brander knowing a fair bit. He's the one we want." Cara speaks up for the first time. "Are you going back for more intel then?" Jacob scoffs at this. "Like hell I am, that place wasn't exactly friendly. Looking round the people, they were either mad with rage or terrified of everything around them. It's not an army, not yet, but who knows how long it'll stay like that. No, not going back there, I told Nano I was going for a day or two to try and track down the mutant on the outskirts, and I have no intention of going back. I'm thinking they'll just assume I got killed by the demon." He gives me a smile as he says it. "Tempting offer." I joke, "better not piss me off." He grins at this. He still has terminator in his hands, I'm surprised he's managed to hang on to it. I guess saviors get special treatment. Cara speaks again. "Are they planning anything, an attack on a nearby city or something?" Jacob thinks for a second. "I'm not sure, but it's possible. The city south of us, forgotten it's name, it's a stronghold for NCO forces, one of the central bases for Iraq. I don't know if they're planning to do anything about this mutant gathering, but I'm pretty sure one of the two groups is gonna kick off at the other some time soon." Good, I need a fight soon, a week of doing nothing has been terrible. Jacob turns to me now. "So what now, mission acomplished? Do we get to go back now?" I shake my head. "Not yet, there are still some loose ends we've got to tie up here. And I think you'll like what I have in mind here, Spike." I'm using his nickname from now on, it amuses me. "Whatever this operation is for, it's big enough to be a threat. We should shut it down if we can. So here's what I'm thinking: small attacks, on patrol groups, vehicles, high ranking people. What we need is too draw out Nano and Surfer into the open, and get to them. If we can take them out of the way, the entire structure is going to go into chaos, people will fight for leadership, it'll be small scale civil war, maybe even the human activists againt mutants. So we take it slow. Small attacks, get the rumors going, rumors about a ghost force attacking the area. Get the rumors to scare people, make them loose order, then go for leadership." Jacob nods at this, but Cara seems less convinced. "How are we going to stay unnoticed whilst attacking everything we can see? Eventually we'll slip up and get taken out." I smile at this. "I have an idea for that too. I think our silent friend could be useful in that sense, give us some tip offs when we need them, he likes doing that." Cara understands now and smirks. Jacob looks confused. "What bloody tip off?" "Our friend, the Ghost."